Sarries 'in a good place'

Saracens boss Mark McCall was left beaming after watching his table-toppers demolish Gloucester 29-8 at Kingsholm.

Saracens boss Mark McCall was left beaming after watching his table-toppers demolish Gloucester 29-8 at Kingsholm.

Neil De Kock, David Strettle and Alex Goode all scored tries for Saracens, while Owen Farrell added 14 points with the boot as McCall's men racked up their highest ever tally at Kingsholm.

Saracens were completely dominant at the set-piece, even repelling a Gloucester scrum late in the game with 13 men.

"I think the first 30 minutes was as good as we've been in terms of our overall game," McCall said.

"Our set-piece was dominant, our kicking game and intensity were at a high level, and we combined that with some really good rugby as well.

"To be 19-0 up away from home against Gloucester takes a bit of doing. It was a great performance."

Saracens even kept Gloucester out when they had forwards Billy Vunipola and Steve Borthwick sin-binned in quick succession during the second half, and McCall added: "We showed that togetherness, we fought for everything and the fact we didn't concede during that time was outstanding.

"To back up the Leicester performance [before Christmas] with two away wins like we've done against Worcester and Gloucester, tells you a lot about the culture and togetherness at the club.

"We are in a good place at the moment."

Gloucester were second-best throughout and only had a Billy Twelvetrees penalty and a late Matt Cox score to show for their endeavours.

"The game was really won in the first-half," Gloucester Director of Rugby Nigel Davies said.

"They [Saracens] have the type of game that brings tremendous pressure to the opposition, and if you are not on top of your game or accurate enough they will find you out.

"When they start to put the squeeze on you, they are very accurate in what they do. We knew what was coming, and we didn't deal with it. Physically, in the first-half, we were second best.

"I think they are the most difficult side that we have come up against. In what they do and the game they have, they do it very well.

"I felt we would be a lot more competitive going into this fixture on the back of our last two results [against Worcester and London Irish], and we are hugely disappointed.

"But we have to learn from the experience and we have to keep on learning.

"The first-half performance was not good enough, but I am not taking anything away from Saracens. They were the architects of that in many ways."